State-run Union Bank of India on Tuesday said it is hiring 5,000 employees this fiscal, including 300 specialised officers for its micro, small and medium business.

These 300 specialised officers will include branch managers, processing officers and technical officers, a senior bank official said here.

The bank also has plans to open 75 new branches for the small and medium business in the current fiscal out of the 175 specialised branches exclusively focussed on the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

"They are meant for customers in this segment with limits up to Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million) or having a turnover less than Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion)," A K Bansal, Union Bank field general manager (north zone), said.

The bank has targeted its advances to MSME segment, which stood at Rs 13,884 crore (Rs 138.84 billion) as of September 2008, to grow by 30 per cent. Its advances to the MSME sector presently constitute 16 per cent of its total advances.

"The bank's endeavour will be to increase this share of MSME advances to 20 per cent of its total advances by the year 2012," he said.

The bank has entered into tie-ups with SIDBI for identifying and financing working capital component for those MSMEs where term finance has been extended by SIDBI.

Union Bank has also entered into an MoU with Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises, which enables them to extend collateral free credit to MSMEs up to Rs 100 lakh (Rs 10 million).

Out of the 5,000 employees the bank is hiring, there will be roughly 2,500 probationary officers. The bank also has plans to increase its branches to more than 3,000 by the end of the current fiscal from around 2,600 at present.